Union power ministry launches conversion of street lighting into LED in Delhi

In a bid to turn Delhi into a smart city, the union power ministry has launched a pilot project for conversion of street-lighting from conventional system to an energy-efficient and environment-friendly LED type.

With the project piloted by the ministry of power, the government also is looking at saving about 250 million units of electricity consumption and Rs700 crore in power costs.

Union urban development minister M Venkiah Naidu and minister for new and renewable energy Piyush Goyal launched the pilot system in Naraiana Vihar, in North Delhi.

The energy efficient LED street-lighting system would be extended to the whole of Delhi which has nearly 5 lakh streetlight points.

According to Goel, it would be further extended to the whole country and especially in areas which had no light and where the economically weaker sections lived.

The project for Delhi would be launched in phases, and after the project was started for North Delhi Municipal Corporation (NDMC), it would be extended to the rest of the civic bodies in the capital.

Beside, NDMC, other authorities catering to the capital are South Delhi Municipal Corporation (SDMC), East Delhi Municipal Corporation (EDMC), New Delhi Municipal Council and the Cantonment Board, for the Delhi Cantonment area.

Delhi would be a model city in energy conservation, saving about 250 million units of electricity and thereby saving approximately 40 per cent of expenditure on energy, Goyal said.

Naidu said the conversion of conventional type system of streetlight into LED lighting was a step towards developing Delhi into a smart city, which he said, needed 24x7 electricity, water, transport, education, solid waste management and sanitation like services.